The First Victor
by Victor Of The 69th Games
Summary: After the Dark Days, Panem would never be the same. With the introduction of the Hunger Games, a brutal and televised fight to the death, Charlie West of District 8 finds himself swept into the arena with 23 others. Together, they go down in history as the first ever tributes of the Hunger Games.
1. Chapter 1: Rising Up

**I'm sure many of you, like me, wondered what the first ever Hunger Games was like. So I decided to write about it through the point of view of Charlie West, a seventeen year old from District 8. Told from first person, this story will be told through the present tense, and past (in flashbacks, which will be** _ **italicized**_ **).**

 **Please comment reviews as you read, I'm not posting this for nothing, and I want to know what everyone thinks. Enjoy!**

 **Chapter 1 – Rising Up**

I hesitantly twist the doorknob and pull the door open to see a small, dimly lit room. In the corner there's a tubular glass structure that leads somewhere above the room. I enter and realize there's a Capitol guard standing off to the side.

"Tribute Charles West. Please prepare yourself for launch," he booms. Launch? What does he mean launch? Are they gonna shoot me out of a cannon? They might as well, they've already sent me off to my death. Why's it matter how they do it? The Capitol guard approaches me and begins patting me down. I don't know what he expects to find, given that I'm dressed in a skintight black athletic shirt and light grey cargo pants. He finishes feeling up my body and walks over to retrieve a pearly white windbreaker. You've got to be kidding me. How am I supposed to hide from people in that? I guess maybe that's the point. The guard throws the jacket at me and sternly yells at me to put it on.

 _My mother gently pulls my blazer over my shoulders and allows me to slip my arms inside. She squeezes the sides of my arms and smiles at me through the mirror._

" _You're looking more like dad every day, Charles," she says._

" _Mom, you can still call me Charlie," I reply._

" _Nonsense, you're a man now. Charlie is a boy's name."_

" _No, mom! I'm not a man! I'm a child. That's the point; the Capitol is sending_ children _to fight to the death, not adults. If it takes me to call myself Charlie to help these sick people realize what they're doing, I'm going to do it."_

" _Quit talking as if they've already picked you. Everyone's name's in once, you've got just as equal of a shot as anyone else. There's a thousand boys in District 8. You'll be home for dinner."_

" _And it would be so far beyond the Capitol to put my name in a few extra times. What a show that would be! Commander West's very own son. I guess killing one of this sons wasn't enough."_

" _Charles! I won't hear another word," she spits out. She doesn't like when we linger on the subject of my father and brother for too long. After all, it's only been about a year and a half since they were killed in the rebellion that the Capitol's trying to call the "Dark Days". Ironically, my mother said those days were the brightest days she's ever lived._

" _Whatever, you're right. I'll be home for dinner, let's go. Are Zoe and Casey ready to go?" I ask. As soon as I speak, my two little sisters come marching into the room. Well, Zoe doesn't exactly march. She can barely stand up straight. She's fifteen, so she's got just as equal a chance of getting picked as I do. The announcement of the Games mentioned though that as the years go on, your name gets added in an extra time each year. Lovely._

 _Casey's only eleven, so she's safe for now. But she seems more scared than me and Zoe combined, just because she doesn't want one of us to get picked._

" _Welcome all! My name is Dorrie Flowers, the first ever escort for District 8!" screams an excited Capitol woman from the stage. Her skin concerns me because it's so pale, and her short candy blue bob cut has me raising an eyebrow. As she goes on babbling about how excited she is, I look around the crowd of other potential Hunger Games tributes and see everyone fidgeting, nervous, terrified. Even the burliest eighteen year olds behind me seem to be shaking a little bit._

" _You all are about to witness history. Today marks the day that District 8 selects their first ever Hunger Games tributes! Now, don't all come running up at once, but both your names are sure to go down in the books for a very long time." Nobody moves a muscle._

" _So let's get right to it, then," she says, "We'll start with the young ladies." She crosses over, and I can hear her heels striking the ground even from the back of the crowd. She throws her hand in and pulls out one of over a thousand slips of paper, one of which has my sister's name on it. When she gets back to the microphone, she opens the slip and holds a long pause for effect._

" _Violet Dugan," she squeaks, "Come on up, lucky girl!"_

 _I sigh with relief that my sister isn't called up. Funny enough, Violet is in the same grade as her and used to bully her in school a lot. I guess this would be the best form of payback for Zoe. Violet finds her way out of the crowd as everyone around me breathes heavily. Nobody really knows what's going to happen. When she gets up on stage, she looks out at everyone with squinty eyes._

" _Cheer up darling," Dorrie says with a hard slap on the back and a frightening giggle, "Not like I just made you famous or anything!" Without another word, she moves over to the boys' side. This is when the nerves sink throughout my entire body. I really think it's going to be me._

" _Charles West!"_

 _Before I have time to panic, the boys around me step away as if I have some kind of disease and let me into the aisle. I hesitate to step out as two guards grab my arms and quickly move me forward toward the stage. A cameraman walks backwards a few feet in front of me, camera fixed on my face. I realize that most of the country will have their eyes on me, so I try not to look too scared. I'm absolutely shocked, even though I knew it was going to be me. It just makes me wonder, how many other rebel commanders' children are getting reaped for this Games?_

I stand in front of the glass structure, which the guard has informed me is the way I'll be getting into the arena. I zip up my white windbreaker and stand as ready as I can, still shaking, out of control. I try to look up the tube, but only see light coming down from the sky. I wonder where violet is. She's probably collapsed on the floor of her launch room, kicking the floor and begging her Capitol guard to take her home.

Suddenly, a section of the glass tube slides open, enough for someone to climb inside. A voice harshly comes over a speaker in the room, "Thirty seconds to launch." The guard comes up behind me and shoves me forward. I step up into the tube, onto a black metal plate. Once I'm inside, I watch the guard walk back to the wall and hit a button that seals the tube closed. Even if I thought I could escape the Hunger Games before, there is now officially no way of getting out.

I stand alone in the harshest silence I've ever experienced. I look up and see a bright sky through a hole that's probably about thirty feet above me.

"Twenty seconds," comes the voice, though muffled through the glass.

I start to think of all the reminders I set for myself to stay alive.

 _Along with the twenty-three other tributes, I sit in a small dark theater. They have us staying in a hotel that's being called the "Tribute Center". Word has it there's a brand new Tribute Center being constructed a few blocks away that'll be ready to go for the next Games. Too bad I mostly likely won't be around to see it. Even if I am, I don't ever want to be anywhere near this city again._

" _Now, you've come to the Capitol, we pulled you on chariots through the streets of our beautiful city, and indulged in the luxuries we get to have each day. But it's time to talk business," explains a short older woman from the Capitol, "I'm here to help explain what you're really here for. Please save all questions until the end of the presentation." I gulp. As she finishes, the screen behind her lights up with the words "The Hunger Games: A Tutorial"._

 _Shots of a vast field appear on the screen. On the field is a large metallic horn-shaped structure. A cornucopia. I recognize it from my mother's kitchen display sets. As the film plays, the Capitol woman talks._

" _This is the Cornucopia. The hub of the arena. Here you are going to find all that you will need. Weapons, supplies, food, and water. These things will remain there until they are taken by you, the tributes."_

 _The shot changes to a short cement and metal pedestal that stands on the grass. Atop it stands a young man in grey pants and a white jacket, probably a paid Capitol actor, since this is the first Games and there can't possibly be footage from previous years. The film pans out to show that there are twenty-four pedestals in a circle around the Cornucopia. It cuts to each tribute who looks confident and ready to jump into battle. That's interesting, I don't think any of us look that eager to get things started._

" _You will each be placed on a pedestal equidistant from the Cornucopia in the center. When you rise up on your plates, you will have sixty seconds. What you do with that time is up to you, but you must remain on the plate. To ensure fairness, mines will be active on the ground around your pedestal that will blow you to bits if you step off too soon." A graphic shot of a girl happily jumping off her pedestal is shown and fake blood and guts go flying._

" _How will we know when time is up?!" yells the girl from District 4 behind me, panicked._

" _Let me repeat. Save all questions until the end," reinforces the Capitol woman, "Moving on. After the sixty seconds, a gong will sound. This is when the mines will be deactivated and the Games will commence. Standing on your pedestal is the only rule we have for the Games. After the gong, everything is up to you. You can kill however you wish," she says as gruesome videos of the Capitol actors hacking each other to bits plays in a montage, "cut each others' heads off, rip each other limb from limb, or simply driving a sword into each others' hearts would do. One of the wonderful liberties of being in the arena is that you won't get in trouble for anything that you do. It is all up to you."_

 _For the first time since I've been in the Capitol, I feel physically sick. I grab my stomach and stand up to find the exit so I can throw up in private. But to my surprise most of the other tributes follow me out of the room to find the nearest toilet._

" _Remain seated! We have to move on to survival tips!"_

"Ten seconds," I hear the speaker say. I stay standing in the loudest silence of my life, as I watch Capitol guard staring at me. A vicious smirk comes over his face as I remember that for them, this is exciting. If he could, he'd send me up early.

Suddenly, I hear a mechanical noise below me and I look down. The plate that I stand on rumbles as it turns on and starts to ascend. The room slowly starts to drop below me as I rise up through the tube. This is it. This is the Hunger Games.

Faster and faster I rise up through the now dark tube with only the light from above, which starts to get brighter. I look up to see that I'm almost there. Just a little over a minute and the first annual Hunger Games will be underway. I rise up out of the darkness and immediately look around. The Cornucopia sits between all of us, and I notice that we all wear the same outfits.

The Cornucopia and pedestals lie at the center of a grass field that is entirely surrounded by woods that seem to get denser the further they go. This brings comfort to me. I wasn't sure there would be many places to hide. Now I look around at the other tributes, and they look back at me. We're all nervous together, all scared together, and all experiencing the exact same frightening reality that only one of us is going to get out of here. Unfortunately, I think we're all still hoping that they'll announce that this whole thing was just a big joke tactic to scare us out of rebelling again, so we can all go back to peaceful living.

"Welcome tributes, and viewers at home," booms a voice from who knows where, "to an historic event. Let the First Annual Hunger Games begin!"


	2. Chapter 2: Sixty Seconds

**CHAPTER 2 – SIXTY SECONDS**

There's a calm breeze hitting my face as I stand on my pedestal. I do nothing to prepare myself for the gong. I'm still half expecting no gong to ever go off. I've been questioning the legitimacy of these sick Games ever since the announcement of them three months ago, and even still I feel like it's all just a big joke.

I look to my right and see Violet. She stands very still, hands at her sides, looking straight ahead at the Cornucopia.

"Violet," I say loud enough for her to hear from her pedestal ten feet away. She immediately looks over to me as if I've awoken her from a trance. Her expression doesn't change, but a single tear trickles down her face. In my mind I picture her saying, "This is actually happening. The Hunger Games are actually real."

 _We get up inside the train and the door seals behind us. Violet hasn't stopped crying or shaking since we left the Justice Building. Dorrie waddles quickly across the car to a table set with the most food I've ever seen at once in my life. Being raised in a time of war means you only eat so much. And something I've never seen before, the food was actually pretty. All sorts of shapes and colors._

" _Now, have a seat you two. Wipe away those tears darling, you don't want to enter the Capitol looking like you're going to a funeral," bickers Dorrie._

" _We are going to a funeral," I snap, "Our own."_

" _Well with an attitude like that, you just might be," she says back. I shrug it off and walk over to take a seat. Violet follows. Once we're seated I grab some kind of cake with brown icing. I've only ever had cake a few times before, and it always tends to give me a stomachache. Though today, I don't think anything's going to stop me from indulging in Capitol food, not before it's too late._

" _I'll be right back, don't leave this car," says Dorrie. She clanks off through a door and disappears. After a long period of silence, Violet speaks for the first time._

" _I'm sorry about Zoe."_

" _Violet, is this really a time to apologize?" I ask._

" _I'm serious. I was never nice to her and I've felt bad about it for years. I bet she's so happy that I'm on this train, getting sent off to my death."_

" _Well, she did tell me she hopes I last longer than you," I say with a laugh. God knows some humor is the first thing this girl needs to lighten up. She forces a smile and looks down in her lap._

" _I'm not going to win," she admits, "I'm just hoping I go quick. I'd rather die right away than last til the end and have to go through the whole thing. But for Zoe's sake, I hope it's you who wins."_

Violet looks back to the Cornucopia. I follow to where she must be looking and see a scattered arrangement of backpacks, weapons, and supplies in the field around the Cornucopia. The mouth of the structure holds an unsettling amount of deadly contraptions. I'm just curious to know which one of them is gonna be responsible for ending my life. Trying not to stay on the topic, I look above the Cornucopia and see a large digital screen with the number 60 on it. Suddenly, it starts to count down. 59… 58… 57… 56…

I look to my left and see a petite girl with long golden locks of hair. Her name is Jane, from District 7. I remember her from our two days of training because her and her District partner, Ellis, had no problem showing off their skills with axes. No surprise there, they probably grew up chopping up lumber with them. I guess all they have to do is pretend my face is a tree trunk if they want to get out of here alive.

I look back at the countdown. 51… 50… 49… It's as if time has slowed down significantly. My heart starts to pound a little harder as this reality sinks in. Those weapons are very real, just as real as I am. I'm really standing here on this pedestal with twenty-three other kids, waiting to run in and kill each other. I can no longer stand still with those thoughts in my head, so I start tapping my foot. The thought of having no possible way of escape, nowhere to run, no exiting the arena unless all these other people die first, makes my face get hot. There's no way I can do this.

34… 33… 32…

I look a few tributes over to my right and see a tall, beautiful girl with skin a little darker than mine. Camellia Sunrose, the only full name I remember so far, because they haven't stopped talking about her since the day we got to the Capitol. I saw the footage of her reaping. District 11. She wasn't even picked, but she volunteered to participate. This was something the Capitol never expected to happen. But when she stepped forward to take the place of a younger, scared-looking girl from her District, they found the possibility of having volunteer tributes exciting.

21… 19… 18…

Seeing the countdown this close to hitting zero sends a surge of anxiety through my body. I shudder in fear, but shake it off. All I need is motivation. A reason to go home. A _need_ to go home.

" _Charles, you've got a visitor today," squeals Dorrie with excitement._

" _I'm gonna start calling you Dorris, see how you like it," I rebut. She scoffs, offended by my reply. The elevator door to our hotel suite suddenly opens, and out steps a familiar face. Capitol General Coriolanus Snow._

" _Mr. West," says the young commander as he steps out of the elevator, "What a pleasure to have you here in the Capitol." Suddenly I feel like there's a lump in my throat. General Snow was a big leader for the Capitol's forces during the war of the Dark Days, and according to my mom, his squad was responsible for the death of my older brother and father._

" _Let's go have a talk, shall we?" he asks, but then rather forcefully grabs my arm and pulls me into a small, dark closet to the side of the hallway. Once inside, he flips on a small light in the empty closet and slams the door shut, looking sternly down at me._

" _Listen, Charles."_

" _Charlie," I correct him._

" _Charlie," he repeats with a faked smile, "I just want to let you know, that you being here is not as much by chance as you may have thought." No surprise there. I continue looking at him and wait for him to continue speaking._

" _You were unable to avoid being in the Hunger Games. You were told each boy's name was in that bowl once, correct?" I refuse to respond._

" _Well that was false. But, we're only deceiving you as your father deceived us at the start of the war. No, the only name on those slips of paper was yours. The Capitol saw it fit and fair that the son of one of our most destructive adversaries be a tribute in this year's Games. We thought you might give us a better show than your father ever could. Let's just say, we don't want you to disappoint us."_

I shake the cold memory out of my head and look back at the countdown.

10… 9… 8…

This is it. This is the Hunger Games. They're about to begin. In a few minutes I could be lying on the grass dead, just like General Snow wants. But I'm not going to let that happen. The last thing he wants, and the last thing he expects, is for me to win, to go home, and to stand as a threat against him. Suddenly I'm overwhelmed by the possibility of sparking an entirely new revolution when the sound of the gong pierces my ears.

 **Please review! I want to know what people are thinking of the story so far! Next chapter should be up soon, and it's an exciting one! Also, if you like it, please follow or favorite the story!**


	3. Chapter 3: We Have To Do This

**CHAPTER 3 – WE HAVE TO DO THIS**

Before I jump off the pedestal, I look around to see if anyone else has. I don't want these mines to blow me up. But the first thing I notice is that everyone else is doing the same thing. Most people stand ready to go, heads flickering from side to side. Others, like the little girl from District 3, stand as if they're never going to leave from their pedestal. Someone's got to make the first move. I look to my left at Jane. She looks at the Cornucopia, then back over at Ellis who stands to her left.

"Should we go now?" I hear her say. I see Ellis nod, and with that one motion, the two of them slowly creep off their pedestals and softly touch their feet to the grass. Nothing happens. No mines, no explosions, nothing. The Games have begun.

I look right at Violet. She looks terrified that people have actually gotten off their pedestals. When I look around, everyone has their eyes on the pair from District 7. The two of them still stand in front of their pedestals, looking around at the rest of us. They turn and whisper to each other, and suddenly I see Jane's head jerk toward the Cornucopia, as if something scared her.

I look to the center of the arena and see a girl with long, wavy, brown hair at a dead sprint for the Cornucopia. She looks determined, ready for war. This takes my by surprise as I've kind of forgotten what we're actually doing here. I think we all forgot. When she gets to the mouth of the Cornucopia from the opposite side of the arena, I recognize her as the girl from District 2. She grabs a backpack off the ground, and then picks out a short, metal sword. She suddenly yells for everyone to hear.

"Alright everyone!" her voice is deep and commanding, "We're supposed to kill each other now! Stop being a bunch of babies and get out here!" Something about the way she says it makes their hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It's as if she didn't have a problem with killing us. I didn't want to take the risk and see if she would actually try. Jane and Ellis begin to run forward, people start to hop off their pedestals, and suddenly everything gets too chaotic for me to handle. I look at Violet and she begins crying.

"Good luck," I say to her sincerely, and I jump off my pedestal. I don't really have a plan. I don't think any of us have a plan. Except for this girl from 2. I think I remember her name being Topaz. Something weird like that.

Almost everyone is off their pedestal and running around outside the Cornucopia, going after backpacks and supplies lying out across the grass. I spot a black backpack halfway between me and the Cornucopia, and decide to go for it. I run straight for it as fast as I can, before anyone else tries to get to it.

Before I even get close, Jane snatches it up and continues running forward to the Cornucopia with Ellis. I stop short, look around, and suddenly Violet runs into me from behind and grabs my arm, making me lose my balance.

"Violet! Get off! No allies!" I yell.

"Please, Charlie! I have no chance!" she begs, burying her face in my side. I look up, and by now people are grabbing supplies, getting into the Cornucopia. Then I see it. The first kill of the Hunger Games. Topaz swings her sword down on a girl, I think she's from 1. The two of them hated each other ever since training started. The girl deflects the blow with a briefcase that she picked up at the mouth of the Cornucopia, but it sends her flying backward onto the ground, defenseless. Topaz steps towards her and almost effortlessly drives her sword into the girl's chest. The horror of it sets in and I push Violet off of me.

"Stay away from me. We can't both get out of here and I can't take care of you! Come up to me again and I'll have to kill you!" I shout. I hate to sound like such an animal, but that's what these Games are supposed to turn us into. If I want to get out alive, I have to act like an animal. Violet collapses to the ground and starts sobbing. I turn back to where everyone else is as the loud boom of a cannon fills the air. I look up, confused. It sounded as though the sound came from the sky. Then I recall during our presentation that a cannon would signal the death of a tribute. I set my eyes on another backpack, right outside the Cornucopia, and start to run.

But as I get going, I notice that Topaz stands over the dead girl's body, and everyone else has stopped what they're doing to look in horror. She whips around to look at everyone.

"What?!" she shouts, "We _have_ to do this! If nobody wants to kill anyone, I have no problem killing you all and getting out of here alive. I'd like to go home, thanks."

Another cannon goes off. Everyone freezes where they are and looks around. Then my eye catches a boy fall to the ground, his neck soaked with red blood. Over him, Jane stands with a bloody knife, looking a little upset by what she just did.

"She's right," pipes up Jane, "We have to do this." She pauses for a second, wipes her forehead which gets stained with the boy's blood, and says, "Besides, that wasn't as hard as I thought it was gonna be."

"Atta girl! Now let's go, people!" yells Topaz. Once again chaos breaks out. I start running again for my backpack. People start screaming, grunting, and I notice people are starting to get more physical. Pushing each other, bumping into one another. I reach the small grey backpack and throw it over my shoulder. Now, I have to find a weapon to protect myself. Since I'm right outside the Cornucopia, I run inside and duck behind a big box to hide while I scan the inside for weapons. Another cannon goes off.

I hear a rustle that draws my attention. A girl with dark black hair backs Jane into the Cornucopia, who still wields her bloody knife. The other girl holds an axe, looking ready to bury it inside Jane's head.

"That was my district partner!" screams the girl. I recognize her from District 5. Another cannon goes off.

"I'm sorry, it wasn't personal," retorts Jane. She sounded a little bitter.

"It was personal for me!" District 5 girl shouts. Another cannon.

"Oh, was he your boyfriend?" asks Jane tauntingly. I feel sick that people are actually having any sort of fun with this.

"He could have been!" the other girl shrieks as her and dives at her with the axe. Jane ducks and spins around the face her again and says, "No he couldn't have! Both of you can't get out of here alive. Only one person can. It wasn't him, and it won't be you either!"

Jane suddenly jumps on top of the girl, pins her to the ground as she struggles to fight Jane off. The girl starts to scream for help as I turn away and the cannon goes off for her. Jane stands up and I duck down further. I look around and then I see a long spear not too far away from me on a rack. I crawl over and grab it, then also grab a curved sword underneath it and clip it onto my backpack. Another cannon.

By now, Jane has gone back out into the field. So I start to run out to see what my escape plan is going to be, but a boy comes running inside the Cornucopia and stands in my way.

"Nice to meet you, Charlie," he says coldly with a deep voice, "I'm Jared. District 2. From behind his back he pulls out a spiked mace dangling by a chain from a handle. He looks down at it, then back up at me. How does he know my name? Before I can ponder this, he steps forward and takes a swing at me with a loud grunt. I dive to the side, and as he's ripping the mace out of the tough dirt, I stand back up. When he turns around, I jab my spear forward, with no particular aim. The spear slides right into his neck and through the other side. I let go of it as if I hadn't just done it. I see his struggle to try and pull it out but he falls to the ground before he can, and slowly stops trying, eyes wide open. Cannon.

I killed Jared. Jared has a family. He has parents. Well maybe not, even. I only have one parent. I'll never know the people sitting at home in District 2 right now, screaming and throwing objects at their television, cursing my name into the sky.

The sound of another cannon pulls me out of a kind of trance I was in. I take another look at Jared on the ground, spear still lodged into his neck. I decide not to take it out. I can't do that.

I turn around and exit the Cornucopia. What I see frightens me. At least six motionless bodies lie scattered on the ground.

"Ellis, let's get out of here!" Jane yells, swinging around the axe she must've stolen from the girl she killed. I look to where her eye are going and see Ellis rip his own axe out of a girl's back as another cannon goes off. Without a second thought, the two of them take off for the woods. Where are they planning on going? Wherever it is, they both have big backpacks. Jane's is the one I wanted.

Then I see Topaz running after a hopeless looking girl. Topaz is bigger, faster, stronger looking than the girl. She dives on top of her and drives her sword right into the girl's back. Then I hear the cry of pain and realize that it's Violet. She just killed violet. The cannon goes off.

Suddenly, I realize that staying to fight may increase my chances of winning. I already did it. I killed someone. What's the difference if I kill another? Besides, if I do, maybe the Capitol citizens will think I'm good and send me sponsor gifts. That's another thing they taught us in the presentation. By now, everyone except for about ten of us have either died or run off into the woods. But the stunning girl from 11 catches my eye. She looks mortified.

"You killed him!" she screams, "You killed him! He was just a boy!" I notice that she speaks to her District partner, a tall, muscular eighteen year-old with darker skin than hers.

"Cam, I had to! You heard Topaz, we gotta do this!"

"I don't care, he was only twelve! I don't care! You're a monster!" My eyes travel to the small boy from District 1 lying on the ground beside them, clearly lifeless. Suddenly, I'm knocked off my feet. Something shoves me onto the ground from behind. When I look up, another older boy runs straight for the boy from 11 and tackles him.

"Stop! Stop this! Get off him!" shouts Camellia. The boy from 10 starts smashing the other boy's head with some kind of heavy metal object. Camellia shrieks and jumps on top of both of them. I start to catch my breath and stand back up as a cannon booms. I need to stop standing around. I turn my head to see a shorter boy, from District 9, fighting with a much taller girl from one of the outlying districts.

"Get away from me!" she spits at him, "You little brat!" Then I notice something gruesome. He's waving around the same spear I had, which means he ripped it out of Jared's neck. Without another thought, the young boy throws the spear straight at the girl and is drives itself into her gut. She falls to the ground, whimpering. Instead of finishing her off, the boy takes off with a backpack and some kind of tarp.

Another cannon goes off, except the girl with the spear inside of her is still alive, crying and moaning with pain. I think she's trying to pull it out. But I look back over to Camellia. I put it together that the boy from 10 killed her district partner, and she ended up killing the boy from 10. She stands over him horrified, her shirt battered with his blood.

"Jared!" comes a scream that pierces my ears. I whip around to the Cornucopia and see Topaz sprinting to a mangled body inside the mouth. She starts screaming.

"Who did it? Who killed him?" she yells. Without another thought, I take off. I've stayed here for too long. Before I know it, I'll be dead with Topaz ripping her sword out of my gut. I don't look back, but I do run past Violet's body on the ground. Her face is buried in the grass, and I only see her light brown hair and a gruesome looking wound in her back. I wonder what's going through Zoe's mind back home right now.

I keep running, past the pedestals, towards the trees. I quickly look back to see if I'm being followed. A cannon goes off. The girl who got speared must have finally slipped out of life. I don't slow down until I get to the tree line, and I start maneuvering over shrubs and through tree trunks as the forest begins to get denser. Only until after five or so minutes of running do I decide to stop. I'm damp with sweat, and I notice the temperature has gotten significantly hotter.

I decide to sit on a trunk and unpack. Inside my backpack is a canteen of water, matches, a bag of six crackers, a sleeping bag, and some beef jerky. No more weapons. Thankfully, I still have the curved sword I took from inside the Cornucopia before Jared tried to kill me. I wonder what his family's doing now. I wonder if, even if I get out of this thing alive, they'll come to District 8 one day and slit my throat in my sleep.

 **PLEASE REVIEW AND FOLLOW THE STORY, TELL ME HOW I'M DOING. TELL ME IF YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITES SO FAR. HERE'S A LIST OF SURVIVING TRIBUTES: (EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVEN'T SEEN MUCH OF SOME OF THEM)**

 **TOPAZ WHITEHORN – DISTRICT 2**

 **LEON BROWN – DISTRICT 3**

 **RAY CRESTA – DISTRICT 4**

 **ALEXIS FISHER – DISTRICT 4**

 **ELLIS PINE – DISTRICT 7**

 **JANE HEMLOCK – DISTRICT 7**

 **CHARLIE WEST – DISTRICT 8**

 **JARRETT WATSON – DISTRICT 9**

 **EVELYN MILLER – DISTRICT 9**

 **CAMELLIA SUNROSE – DISTRICT 11**


End file.
